Criminal Justice
Crime in America
-the rational stratgey of crime fighting is known as deterrance
deterrence-make the cost of crime so big that no one would commit a crime
Measuring crime: violent crime and property crime
-function of willingness of people to report crime to the police, the adquecy of the reporting system, and the amount of crime itself
Trends in crime rates: trending down; variety of possible reasons for this
Victimization: Crime rates understate the real amount of crime - from figure 6-3 about 2x more people report being victims of crimes in sruveys than offenses are reported to the polic
Crime in America
Non serious and victimless crime
-drug violentations, gambling, liquor law violations
-generally assumed that participation is voluntary
-argued that if these crimes were legalized and other crimes would diminish
White collar crime: does not appear in FBI crimes index but it is estmated to cost the American public more than all other serious crime combined
Crime and Deterrence:
Author argues that the effectiveness of deterrence depends on certainty, swiftness, and severity
Swiftness, how quick the punishment will occur
Social Heterogeneity: Lowlevels of crime in other countries are often attributed to the homogeneous population and culture of those nations; USA is comparably heterogeneous
Socialization and Control: argument that erosion of social institutions(which help to control behavior and transmit values to children and censure adults)
Irrational Crime: idea that
Does Crime Pay?
There are multiple explanations of crime and argues that fequence of crime is driven by deterrance piece
Lack of Certainty: very few crimes result in jail sentences for perpetrators
Lack of swiftness: deterrent effect of punishment is lost when punishment takes a long time to apply
-bail system and trial delays consequences; many defendants released during preliminary hearings
The question of severity: there are more inmates in our prisons now than ever before(roughly); 1.6 million in state and federal prisons
Police and Law Enforcement
Police Functions: enforce the law, keep the peace, furnish services
Police discretion: police have the discretion in their encounters
Community policing: a proactice form of policing; goal of being more visible in the community (expensive)
Police crackdowns: extra police activity in relation to crimes usually ignored is only succcessful if supported by the community, prosecutors, and judges
Ex: Broken Windows is the idea that one negelected broken window will lead to more broken windows; more arrets for petty offenses, combined with mappy of crime
“Stop and Frisk:“ stop pedestrians, frisk for weapons and drugs
Federalizing Crime
-elected officals are frequently pressued by their constitutens to maek certain offenses a federal crim
Federal role in law enforcemtn: traditonally, limited law enforcement responsibilities, counterfieting, fraud, embellizement
Consitituional constraints: federalizign crime impinge on reserved power of the states
Multiple federal agencies
Crimes and Guns
Gun control legislation a common policy intative following highly publicized
Federal gun laws
-ban on interstate and mail order sales, prohibition of sale to convicted felons
Brady law
-1993 law that requires five day waiting period for purchase of handguns dealers send form completeed by buyer to police agency who checks that buyer is not a convicted felon
Gun ownership: widespread in US around 200 million firearms
State Laws: state laws and local ordinances also govern gun ownership
Liscense to carry, license to concelad carry, record of sales
The Drug war
-cannabis is commonly used recreationally and medically; prohibition creates an environment for criminal activity
Drug Trafficking: difficult to estimate market for drugs
Drug enforcment; over 1.5 million people arrested for drug violations each year
Crime in the courts
commitments to due process and deterrence represent conflicting values
insufficient evidence and dismissal
-about half of arrets results in dismissal and a decision made by the prosecutor
-due to insufficient evidence or dertermination that the offender is not a danger to society
Unreasonable searches and sezures: fourth ammendement
Self incrimination and right to counself
The exclusionary rule: illlegally obtained evidence and confessions cannot be used in criminal trials; controversial; unique to us
Plea bargaining: prosecution agrees to recommended lighter penalities in exchange for a guilty plea; critics see as form of leniencey or as violation
Prison and Correctional Policies: more than 10 million americans are imprisoned each year
failuare of rehabilitatin: benefits of rehability prisoners would be enormous - 80% of felonies are commited by repeat offenders; need more education and job training
Recidivism: 67.5% of prisoners are rearrested within three years of release
Capital Punishment
Fu